Super Bowl betting misses all-time mark

Super Bowl XXXVII and its match up between the NFL’s top-ranked defense against the top-ranked offense resulted in more than $71.6 million wagered at Nevada sports books, the third highest total in Super Bowl history.

Tampa Bay, which beat Oakland 48-21 on Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, was a 4-point underdog going into the game. There were high hopes across the state that this year’s game could challenge the record high of $77.2 million wagered on the ’98 Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and Denver Broncos.

“It’s a little bit less than we thought but the win was up from last year,” said Steve Weinberger, a senior agent for the tax and license division on the Gaming Control Board.

Sports books held 7.3 percent or $5,264,963 of the amount wagered on this year’s game, the fourth highest percentage in the past decade. For the 2001 Super Bowl between the Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants, sports books held a record 16.3 percent or more than $11 million of the $67.6 million wagered.

In last year’s Super Bowl, $71.5 million was wagered on the game between the 14-point underdog New England Patriots and St. Louis Rams. New England upset St. Louis 20-17 in overtime and the unexpected result drastically affected the hold as the house only kept 3.3 percent or won $2.3 million.

Still, most at the Gaming Control Board figured this year’s game between the high-scoring Raiders and the Jon Gruden led Buccaneers could’ve made this the highest grossing Super Bowl ever.

“We thought there would be a lot of money placed on the Raiders on game day,” Frank Streshley of the Gaming Control Board told the Associated Press. “That just didn’t occur.”

The second highest amount ever wagered on a Super Bowl was for the ’99 game between Denver and the Atlanta Falcons, when almost $76 million was wagered.